Ewe's 20-kilometre journey home after two years on the lam

To be a sheep is to follow the mob but there is one animal that defied its stereotype by wandering off and living a mystery life for two years. But now, after relying on its innate GPS, the ewe has amazed us by making the 20-kilometre journey home.

Farmer Matthew Cleve owns the family property Gracedale in Darraweit Guim, west of Wallan, and when fire struck on February 9, 2014, he lost 400 sheep due to the blaze, euthanasia or from wandering off.

Yet one independent sheep made an unimaginable return, carrying 20 kilograms of wool on her back, just in time for the fire's two-year anniversary and an urgent haircut.

Mr Cleve would be familiar with Little Bo-Peep, the nursery rhyme character who lost her sheep, didn't know where to find them but left them alone so they could come home. And with a mountain more than three bags full in Baa Baa Black Sheep.

Advertisement

There's no guessing which sheep returned home with 20 kilograms of wool.Credit:Simon O'Dwyer

"I couldn't believe that she would turn up," Mr Cleve declared. "She has been so resilient." The ewe christened "Barbie" still had her purple ID code in her ear and was in remarkable health given she could have been ravaged by flystrike, infested with maggots and died from infection.

Making life uncomfortable was the barbed wire caught around her bottom and soot from the fire was hidden in her fleece, along with bark.

If livestock were fitted with a Go-Pro camera, we would have known what Barbie has been up to. She certainly looked like she had parked herself at a food truck and feasted on hamburgers. Pregnancy was ruled out despite it being possible that she had a two-year clandestine love affair and headed home heartbroken.

Mr Cleve believes Barbie went to Deep Creek in Mickleham, a walk of up to 20 kilometres that you can imagine the late gumboot-wearing potato farmer Cliff Young doing.

We can sit around in a knitting circle and speculate how Barbie made her way back but experts can help explain this mystery. Sheep are far from stupid or sheepish by nature.

Dr John Webb-Ware, a senior consultant with the Mackinnon Project in the University of Melbourne's faculty of veterinary and agricultural sciences, said sheep had excellent memories, navigation and could recognise faces. "Perhaps the sheep saw Matthew over the fence and wanted to return!" he said.

Matthew Cleve admires the slimmed-down Barbie and her fleece.Credit:Simon O'Dwyer

Barbie must have known about humans seeking greener pastures because that's what she did. Given the burnt countryside, Dr Webb-Ware said: "Sheep do have a habit of looking where the grass is the best."

The 2014 fire destroyed Mr Cleve's shearing shed, machinery and 30-kilometres of fencing. Dr Webb-Ware believes that when fences in the area were repaired, Barbie couldn't return but with kangaroos causing severe damage to fences, she found a big hole and made her come back.

Matthew Cleve with his daughter Maggie after fire ravaged his farm in 2014.Credit:Pat Scala

"Or saw some other sheep on Matthew's farm and wanted to return to the mob, as sheep are mob animals."

Although Barbie's woolly blanket looks impressive, it is matted and long, making it basically unsellable. But Mr Cleve is considering having it appraised or donating it to charity. At $2.50 kilo, it is worth $50.

Illustration: Matt Golding

The shearing shed of neighbour Tom Hoban resembles a light-filled old timber theatre. Converted from old army huts from the Puckapunyal army base, sunlight streams in and it was here that Barbie dramatically lost 20 kilos.

To get down to business with the shears, Mr Cleve made a costume change and put on a regulation singlet. It wasn't the "Jackie Howe" version named after the late Queensland shearer and farm-fashion icon but it was still blue.

Farmhand Leon Hueppauff shows the barbed wire that was stuck in the wool.Credit:Simon O'Dwyer

Admiring the slim Barbie, Mr Cleve said: "She's in really good nick. She was content when being shorn because she didn't kick or thrash about."

The internet is deluged with excitable tabloid stories about pets who have travelled long distances to return home and the homing pigeon is known for its brilliant navigation skills.

But sheep are as smart as astronauts when it comes to space. CSIRO academic Dr Caroline Lee co-authored a study about the spatial learning and memory of sheep and found they learnt a complex maze over three days and when they were re-tested six weeks later, they retained their memory and improved on their previous performance.

Dr Rebecca Doyle, a University of Melbourne research fellow at the Animal Welfare Science Centre, said sheep had excellent problem-solving abilities. "They have very good visual sense and it's the most dominant of the five senses," she said.

In Wye River's Christmas Day fire, resident Peter Jacobs thought he lost two sheep, Dolly and Diedre, but he was joyously reunited with the singed and blackened pair on December 30.

Suzanne Carbone curates words as a creative writer for The Age spanning celebrity, fashion, TV, film, radio, entertainment, food, culture, trends, personal profiles and major events. Sometimes stories land on a silver platter: in 2010, she was at a private dinner in Toorak with surprise guest Oprah Winfrey and landed an exclusive. She previously wrote Postcode 3000, a column about Melbourne and its people, and sometimes encountered true royalty. She wrote about the 2012 royal visit by Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, the Queen's visit in 2006 and Prince Charles’ visit in 2005. While covering the so-called red-carpet round, she has covered the AFI Awards, Logies, the Australian Open, the Brownlow Medal, the Allan Border Medal, the Australian Grand Prix, polo, the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games, and the Flemington quadrella: Derby Day, Cup Day, Oaks Day and Stakes Day. She is skilled at saying her name to pass through the velvet rope and juggling a notepad, pencil and mobile phone while wearing a lanyard and wristband.